Harder to Hide
by Washu II
Summary: *B/V Three Years* Just look at him...how could she not want him? She was a hot-blooded woman just like every other girl in the world, and she was entitled to lust after whatever Evil Saiyan Prince Intent On Destroying the Planet she pleased...
1. Chapter 1: Dreams

*I own nothing at all*

Harder To Hide

_"Secrets I have held in my heart are harder to hide than I thought._"

-Arctic Monkeys 'I want to be yours'

1

Bulma backed up til the backs of her knees hit the bed and toppled onto it. Vegeta scooped her legs up and pushed the bedspread to the edge, Bulma's heart pounding through her chest as his hot breath tickled her white calves.

"This might get messy," he warned, his coffee eyes burning into Bulma's half-naked body as if he could visually devour her.

"Come here, Asshole." she murmured, pulling her legs from his grasp and fixing them around his waist. He allowed himself to be pulled into her arms and she felt his hardness against her pelvis as their tongues met with wicked passion. Bulma bucked her hips, aching to tear those black spandex shorts from Vegeta's tight little body, dying to feel his fingers rip through her clothes and find their home against her bare skin.

"Vegeta..." Bulma moaned loudly, practically begging. "Vegeta, now..."

"Bulma?"

"Veg-" Bulma awoke with a start, gasping as her eyes focused on Yamucha, the last person she expected to see. She sat up on her elbows and looked around. Yamucha's bed, Yamucha's house. 'How about that.' she thought stupidly. She pressed her palms against her eyes, trying to shake Vegeta and his rock hard abs from her thoughts.

"You kept saying 'Vegeta'," Yamucha was saying, and Bulma turned to look at him. "Were you having a bad dream?"

Bulma blinked, her heart still racing and body still burning with desire for her Saiyan houseguest.

"Yeah," She muttered, squirming against the wetness between her legs. "A real nightmare."

After a few more hours of fitful sleep and a half-hearted session of morning sex, Bulma wiggled her way out of Yamucha's bed and headed home. She rested her cheek against her palm as she drove back to Capsule Corp., tilting her face to the open car window, enjoying the morning breeze on her fair skin. Bulma's reprieve was short-lived; she could already hear the banging from a couple miles away. She turned onto her street and the yelling became clear as well. She pulled into the driveway and cut the ignition, staring irritably at the Gravity Chamber smack-dab in the middle of the front yard like a junk car in a trailer park. No doubt the yelling and cursing from inside it was the object of her REM sleep's affection.

"Ugh."

Bulma had somehow managed to wipe that from her slate until now. Flashes of the dream whipped through her head, leaving her temporarily breathless as she recalled the way his lips had felt on her bare legs.

"SON OF A STUPID BITCHING MOTHERFUCKER!" The Gravity Chamber screamed, and the moment was gone. Any mouth that roared like that probably wouldn't be the most gentle, anyway. But who needed gentle when you could have-

"Stop." Bulma said to herself, rubbing her thumb and middle finger over her temples. Another day with Vegeta, another headache. Between the ranting and the raving and the cussing and that unbelievably hot body of his, Bulma's head could do nothing but throb.

Ever since Vegeta moved into Capsule Corp., into the bedroom directly across from Bulma's, Bulma had spent equal time hating him and lusting after him. Not so much HIM, but his deeply tanned chiseled chest. Thighs the size and texture of boulders. Those tiny spandex shorts didn't leave much to the imagination, and Bulma practically had to fan herself every time the Saiyan prince sauntered by.

Perhaps it was rude of her, after all she was dating Yamucha, sleeping with Yamucha, Yamucha Yamucha Yamucha...But Yamucha was getting a bit dull. She hated to admit that this dullness did not persist until her new roommate made his shorty shorts appearance, but...yep, that's when it happened. She didn't like to think of herself as such a shallow, vapid creature as that but...again, yep.

"Just look at him!" She hissed to herself. She had made it to her bedroom and was staring out the window as Vegeta emerged from the Gravity chamber, all sweaty and huffing and hot. She watched, entranced, as he mopped the sweat from his neck and chest with a small towel. How could she not want him? She was a hot-blooded woman just like every other girl in the world, and she was entitled to lust after whatever Evil Saiyan Prince Intent On Destroying the Planet she pleased.

However, the dreams were new. Even though she had been harboring a teeny tiny crush on him since she saw him on Namek, she'd never given him this much thought until now. The dreams were long, slow, downright explicit sometimes; her legs weren't exactly the only thing he spent time breathing heavily on. And-

"Get a good look, woman?"

Bulma was so busy staring off into space she hadn't even noticed Vegeta was no longer in the yard. She dropped the window blinds with a crash and whirled around, coming face to face with the sneering Saiyan. He stepped forward, swinging his towel over his shoulder.

"You wanna follow me into my room too? Watch me change?" he grinned heartily as Bulma's face turned beet red. That asshole always had something to say. Whether it was sexual in nature or merely insulting, he seemed to pride himself on the gratuitous amounts of venom he could spew at Bulma at any given moment.

"Why don't you just shut the hell up." she retorted, and Vegeta laughed all the way out to the hall, his bedroom door slamming behind him. Bulma relaxed against the window sill, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as if in defiance to Vegeta's crude offer. Fucking Vegeta. Fucking dreams. Fucking dreams about fucking Vegeta...

"Fuck." she muttered.

Hello! Thank you for reading! I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. It has been a -really- long time since I've submitted any fics, so I hope I'm not too rusty. Those of you who have been here ten plus years might remember Washu the Goddess..that was me!

This is a multi-chapter fic (obvs). I try hard not to make readers wait too long for updates so I only start submitting once I have a large portion written. Please let me know in the reviews how you like it, and how you feel about the way it's written. Also if you notice any grammatical errors PLEASE let me know so I can address them! Again, thanks for reading :)

-Washu II


	2. Chapter 2: Resolve

2

It was the middle of the night, and Bulma found herself tiptoeing into Vegeta's room and closing the door behind her with a soft click. It was a humid night and Vegeta had kicked all the covers off, legs sprawled across the mattress, breath slow and even. Bulma stared at the prize before her and came forward, easing herself down onto the bed and crawling between Vegeta's thighs, letting her fingers slide underneath his boxer shorts, only to find that-

"Dammit i'm awake" Bulma groaned as her fingers grasped at nothing but the sheets. She rolled over with a huff and stared at the ceiling, cursing under her breath. This was getting ridiculous, and she never even got to the good part!

"So unfair" she crossed her arms over her chest and waited for sleep to catch her again...and maybe this time her dreams would pick up where they left off.

Bulma spent half the night tossing and turning, unable to get Vegeta out of her head. Somewhere around three am she realized what a terrible person, particularly girlfriend, she was being. Instead of racking her brains about how to see Vegeta naked, how about finding new ways to enjoy Yamucha naked? It was really quite shameful how easily she forgot what a Yamucha even was when Vegeta was around, and that needed to stop immediately. How could she be so obsessed with that douchebag?! She pushed Vegeta from her mind and focused on thoughts of her boyfriend, and how she could ensure that he was the only man on her mind.

Bulma awoke late Sunday morning with a renewed sense of purpose. She had decided in the middle of the night that in order to feel good about Yamucha, she could start by feeling good about herself.

_I'll go for a nice run, and maybe get a manicure._ She hummed softly as she pushed her unruly curls out of her face in front of her dresser mirror. _I'm kind of over this perm, too._ Bulma slid into a pair of shorts and a tshirt, pushed her hair back with a headband and made her way to her bedroom door. She pushed and was rather shocked to find she couldn't open it.

"What the..." she put her shoulder up against the door and shoved, applied way too much weight and yelped as whatever was blocking the door moved and she fell to the floor with a grunt. She scrambled to her knees and blinked blankly at the mountain of banged up bots piled in front of her bedroom, a few now rolling down the hallway. Smoke was still rising from a few of them and Bulma simply stared.

" Oh, you've got to be kidding me." she muttered under her breath, and got to her feet. She stepped over the bots and kicked one out of her way as she jogged down the stairs, whipping into the kitchen and coming face to face with her beloved houseguest who was munching on a pile of pancakes.

"Nice present you left me." she said, coming to stand across from him at the kitchen table.

"They're too weak. I destroyed them with a flick of my wrist, woman. I need something stronger." Vegeta replied with his mouth full, barely glancing up from his food.

"Well Vegeta to be honest, I thought I made them pretty darn strong to start with." Bulma ignored the rude Prince, the wheels in her inventor's mind already turning in spite of herself. "I'm not sure what to do to improve them, but I can try."

"Don't try, just do it!" Vegeta glared up at her and growled inwardly when he saw she wasn't even looking at him anymore, but had wandered over to the coffee machine. She was being...weird. Why wasn't she screaming? This would not do. Vegeta slammed his fork down. "I need a bot that will actually challenge me, got it? I'm not playing games! I'm trying to save this mudball you call home in case you'd forgotten! Do you think you could manage to give me something worth my damn time? Huh? Woman! Answer me!"

Bulma kept her back turned to Vegeta, trying to suppress the giggles. Not responding. Why had she never thought of it before? When she first walked in the room she was all set to start screaming at him but as he berated her, she was finding it a lot more amusing to see how long she could keep quiet. To see how long he could _stand_ her keeping quiet. Apparently the answer to that was about fifteen seconds. She took a breath to control herself and turned around.

"Oh, i'll find a way to make them stronger. I'll make them strong enough to kick your ass, don't you worry about that!" she snapped at him, but could barely hide her smile. "Next time though, leave them downstairs. I can't carry all those bots down from my bedroom! Why would you leave them there anyway, you think I got a laboratory in there? Get real. Go get 'em for me ok? Bring them to the lab, I'll work on them in just a little bit." she flipped her hand at him as she left the room with a cup of coffee, loving his floored expression and practically purple in the face from trying not to laugh.

"GET BACK HERE! YOU INSOLENT...GAH!"

Bulma slammed the door to the lab shut, cutting off Vegeta's rampage and immediately exploding with laughter.


	3. Chapter 3: Consideration

The summer gave way to the rainy season and a quiet, almost somber blanket fell over Capsule Corp for nearly a month. Her parents were gone, Yamucha was busy training most of the time, and Bulma found herself unable to concentrate on anything. She'd gone shopping so much she'd practically bought out the department store. She'd changed her hair about four times in two months...smaller perm, bigger perm, cornrows (Vegeta had laughed at her so hard that he choked on his cookie), and now professionally straightened tresses down past her elbows. It had gotten so long but she just couldn't bring herself to cut it. She was running out of things to do outside of work, however she still found herself spending less time in the lab and more time simply sitting on the sofa under a quilt, sipping tea and staring out the window. For some reason, when the rains started Vegeta had migrated from the Gravity Room to the yard to train, which gave Bulma even more incentive to treat the window like her own personal theatre.

Watching Vegeta was exhilarating. It almost made her want to go run on a treadmill or something. Almost. He was just so...dedicated. Focused. Agile and in complete command of his mind and body, things Bulma could only relate to on the most superficial of levels. Sure she was something of a genius and could really put her nose to the grind when it came down to it, but she was beginning to see that she had only just scratched the surface of potential. Watching Vegeta...he radiated potential. She had never-EVER-put even a drop of the amount of effort Vegeta was using into anything in her life. Never set her mind so pointedly on one goal, one dream. Sure his dream was to destroy Goku, kill each and every one of them, and then ascend to Sovereign of the Galaxy in that order, but hey, it was more ambition than she'd ever had. At least he was working toward something. What was she doing? Gawking out the foggy window at him while slurping some Morning Thunder and wishing she'd made some popcorn. Real helpful to the impending doom they now had two years to prepare for.

That meant Vegeta had been living with them for well over a year now, and they hadn't killed each other. Screaming threats of gruesome torture? Well, yeah, every day. But no murder. They'd actually somehow manufactured a predictable and relatively non-violent routine around the house, sharing meals and quarters with limited verbal abuse. Bulma had to admit it was a pretty comfortable situation considering the options, and with how often her parents travelled it was just nice to have someone else in the house and to see a friendl-well, a face. Her stomach knotted when she thought about how it would end, how everything would end in two years, even sooner probably if Vegeta knew how often she watched him train, studying his every move with fascination.

Vegeta muttered "5000" under his breath and sat back on his heels, lacing his fingers behind his back and stretching. Only 5000 pushups left. He glanced toward the house and saw Bulma in her spot by the window, staring in his direction as per usual. Vegeta was pretty sure she didn't know that he was well aware of her presence, because if she did he was certain she'd stop. She was foolish but she wasn't completely braindead. He noticed her a couple days after what Bulma had described as 'Monsoon Season' had started and he'd started training outside. He liked the gloomy rain and how the fresh air seemed to give him unlimited lung capacity. He was enjoying racing around in normal gravity, testing what training in 300 times the Earth's normal pull had done for his speed.

The Gravity Chamber was not forgotten, but Vegeta still wasn't 100% convinced that Bulma could find her own big ass with two hands and a flashlight, and he had no intention of being electrocuted into oblivion during the rains in what was essentially a giant microwave. Hell, if she was intent on it, it was a pretty good plan to do away with him. But somehow Vegeta didn't think that was her plan, even when he did get hurt. Sure it was her fault, but he didn't think she actually set out to make shit, especially with how much she bitched about repairing it. Which led him to the question he asked himself every day.

WHY IS SHE JUST SITTING THERE.

Why was she just staring blankly at him like she was fucking catatonic when she could be fixing something? He sure broke enough stuff to know there was surely something for her to work on. Plus, she was a distraction, whether she meant to be or not. Just sitting there, and Vegeta could not help but objectify her. She was very beautiful, clean and fresh as a spring blossom. Vegeta hated that her looks made him think of such repulsively poetic comparisons, but that's what she was. She was loud. Brash. Rude. Bitchy. Clumsy. Shrieky. And golden and ripe and purposely seductive.

She was a witch, a sheerly evil witch to act this way around him, he who had seen plenty but never indulged, thanks to Frieza. That abhorrent animal did everything he could to keep Vegeta from experiencing any sort of satisfaction or pleasure, everything from sex to a sound night's sleep to enjoying a damn meal. As a young, carnal Saiyan teenager he was caught looking at a woman Frieza had taken for himself-and was subsequently whipped within an inch of his life. From then on, Vegeta looked at no one with anything other than hatred, and he certainly never intentionally glanced in a female's direction again.

But Frieza was gone, and even though Vegeta was woefully inexperienced with the female race, he still knew something was up with her, and the way she stared at him was not the way she stared at the one she claimed to love. That simple-minded dumbass Yammo or whatever the fuck his stupid name was. She sometimes looked at that dope like he was a fly she needed to shoo out the window. Vegeta knew she looked at him that way too sometimes, and Sometimes she did actually tried to shoo him out the window. But other times, like now, well...She looked at him like he was a Prince. The way he should've always been viewed, instead of spending most of his life being spat upon and ridiculed and enslaved.

He'd always imagined what it'd be like to actually be respected and admired, feared and obeyed, the things Frieza always demanded of him, Prince Vegeta, actual royalty. He bowed to no one! Having to commit all those disgusting acts of inferiority made him sick. No matter how much torture and brainwashing Frieza had heaped upon him, he just couldn't be programmed to be submissive. All that mutant tyrant had managed to do was blacken and shrivel Vegeta's heart into a bitter rock full of hate, a rock that was starting to crack underneath the incessant beauty and sass and overall...NICENESS of that Earth woman at the window. It was irrational to everything he knew. To show emotion, to HAVE emotion was considered the deadliest of sins against Frieza, and even though the reptile was dead, obliterated, the damage had long since been done. But that woman was doing something. She was a plague to the stone wall he'd built around himself, eating away at the surface bit by bit, eroding his persona, his protection that he'd built long, long ago. Without it, he didn't know who he was. He _was _a stone wall as far as he was concerned, and wasn't interested in anything deeper than that. Anything else was too dangerous to consider. God damn Frieza, damn him to hell for it. All he had felt from anyone and for anyone for nearly 25 years was hate. Not a moment of anything but pure, unfiltered hate.

But there was this woman. It was almost impossible for Vegeta to comprehend, but she didn't hate him.

And he didn't hate her. He understood _that _ better than anything he'd ever known. 


	4. Chapter 4: Chase

I would just like to thank everyone for their reviews. I appreciate the support!

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><p>4<p>

It was early evening when Vegeta finally came in. He shook the rain from his hair and walked over to the couch where Bulma had fallen asleep a half hour before, chin in her drooping hand.

"I'm going to start charging you for all your spying." Vegeta said, and Bulma slowly opened her eyes, dazed. She looked up and saw Vegeta standing over her, dripping with storm and sweat.

"Hey," she said softly, wiping sleep from her eyes.

"Hey." Vegeta mocked. "What's wrong with you? Do you think you have tinted windows or something? You're distracting me from my training!"

"Bite me." Bulma blew him off, getting up and weaving around him toward the kitchen. She felt him stalk in behind her.

"Bite you? What the hell's that supposed to mean?" he spat.

"It's just an expression Vegeta, sheeze!" Bulma sighed loudly as she started digging through the cupboard for plates. Her mother had put a turkey-an entire turkey-in the oven that morning for her eternally hungry house guest. If Bulma was lucky she might be able to snag a piece, too.

"What kind of expression is 'bite me'? I don't understand what that could possibly mean oth-"

"IT MEANS SHUT UP!" Bulma yelled, exasperatedly yanking the stove open, whipping the turkey out like it was weightless, and slamming it down on the counter. "BON APPETIT!" she sat down at the table and crossed her arms with a huff. Vegeta took the bird and dumped it on the table in front of his seat across from her. He sat and ripped a leg off, wolfing it down in practically one swallow and then looked at her with an almost amused expression.

"Don't think changing the subject will get you off the hook," he said between mouthfuls. "For what reason are you watching me train all day long? Don't you know it's rude to stare? Did your pathetic loser boyfriend tell you to take notes? HA! As if he could do one iota of damage to those androids! What a ridiculous excuse for a fighter!"

"ALRIGHT, alright! We all know you're stronger than Yamucha, it's really not AS impressive as you're making it out to be." Bulma rolled her eyes, hoping Vegeta wouldn't pick at the unintentional insult of her boyfriend. It just kind of fell out of her mouth. And it's not like it wasn't the truth, right?

"So you acknowledge my strength. You aren't as stupid as I thought." Vegeta replied. He stuffed another leg into his mouth. "But that still doesn't explain why you stare at me." he said, mouth full.

"Right now i'm staring at you because you look like a total idiot." Bulma retorted. She bravely reached over and plucked a piece of meat off the bird and popped it in her mouth, ignoring Vegeta's glare. "But I watch you train because you're amazing."

Vegeta's sharp look dissipated to confusion. Before he could reply, Bulma went on, leaning back and putting a slippered heel against the table. "I've seen the guys train plenty of times. Yamucha, Tien, Krillin, they train hard but are obviously limited. Goku's ability on the other hand is incredible. He works SO hard." Vegeta scoffed and she paused, making sure he was listening. "You work harder."

Vegeta was quiet for a moment, then looked back to his food with a dismissive grunt. Bulma leaned forward, peeling off some crispy turkey skin. "I'm serious, Vegeta. I really admire how hard you're working to save Earth-"

"I do NOT care about your planet, woman. I want a fair fight with your mentally handicapped pal Kakarott when this stupid Android business is over." Vegeta interrupted, beginning to gnaw absently at a bone.

"Yeah I know, I know. But in your quest to defeat Kakarott-" Bulma said the Saiyan name with air quotes, "-You'll be saving the rest of us sorry humans. And seeing how strong you've become in this last year, many thanks to ME, of course," she batted her eyes and Vegeta rolled his, "You're definitely someone I want on my side!" she smiled and Vegeta stared hard at her before finally speaking.

"What's your angle."

Bulma groaned and shoved her chair away from the table with a loud squeak.

"I don't have an angle Vegeta! I was paying you a friggin complement! God! Forget it!" she threw her hands up in the air as she stomped out of the kitchen.

"I'M ON TO YOU!" Vegeta hollered after her and was answered with the usual heavy slam of lab doors. Vegeta snickered to himself as he licked his fingers, savoring the sight of her curvaceous figure stalking down the hallway. "Idiot."

* * *

><p>"God what a pain in my ass!" Bulma huffed as she angrily stuffed her arms into her lab coat and set to work on Vegeta's latest destruction. "So stupid...so annoying...so hot...ugh" she muttered to herself, crying out in frustration as one of the wrecked bots fell and bounced off her foot. She kicked it across the room with a grunt and took a deep breath. Why did she let that arrogant monkey get to her so much? Yeah most of the time they did alright, but the other times, when they didn't so much, it was like the whole room was about to explode with the tension. She'd never known anyone who could yell louder than her, who could dish out the insults as quickly and, unfortunately, more cleverly than her. Douche. Seriously, how was it that they hadn't killed each other yet? "Or something else...shut up Bulma, shut up, shut up, shut-"<p>

"Why is it that every time I come down here you're blathering to yourself like an imbecile?"

Bulma nearly jumped out of her skin and gripped the table, not turning to the jerk behind her.

"Would it be possible for you to enter a room like a normal human being instead of scaring the shit out of me every time?" she sighed angrily.

"NO, it would NOT be possible." Vegeta mocked to her back. "I'm a _Saiyan_, and I'll thank you not to forget that."

"How could I ever." Bulma mumbled, and turned to face him. "What do you-What is that." she narrowed her eyes. Vegeta stood before her with the microwave, battered and smoking, wedged under his arm.

"It did not do what I told it to do." he stated, dropping it on her cluttered desk with a thunk. Bulma briefly closed her eyes.

"Did you push the buttons?" she asked slowly. Vegeta 'psh'ed and Bulma counted to three in her head. "Vegeta. You have to push the right buttons. I've asked you like one BILLION times to let me show you!"

"I CAN READ THE BUTTONS, woman, for Godssake I wasn't born yesterday! This one didn't work!" he roughly grabbed the back her her head and stuck her face in front of the smoldering keypad. "That one!"

"Oh." Bulma laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, I forgot...that one IS broken!" she pushed Vegeta's hand away and scratched her neck with a nervous grin as he glared at her. "Sorry!"

Vegeta gave her a deadpan stare.

"I'm going to kick you into next week." he said calmly, but before he could do just that, Bulma had a brilliant (brilliantly stupid), dangerous idea. He pissed her off so much, but he was so frickin cute especially when he was yelling, God what was wrong with her, she just reached forward and bopped his nose. It took Vegeta by such surprise that he actually faltered and before he could lay a hand on her she screamed with what Vegeta could only figure was realization of what she'd done and took off running.

"What the hell Bulma!" he yelled and charged after her. He could hear her cackling from some distance and growled, running faster. "Why are you laughing!? I'm going to kill you! Is that funny!?"

"YES!" Bulma cried, taking a little moment to savor the rare sound of her name on his lips. She yelped, taking the corner of the hallway too sharply and colliding with her father's desk. She scattered papers everywhere as she scrambled back to a run, and she could feel Vegeta's hard stride pounding after her. The lab was a maze of cubicles and experiments and she was knocking shit every which way as she tore through.

"Come back here before I blast you!" Vegeta roared, but found he really wasn't angry. He was...exhilarated. It'd been a long time since he'd had something to chase, and easy as it would have been to just shoot a little beam at her and knock her off her feet in like two seconds, this was a hellovalot more fun. Did he just associate that woman with fun? He was losing it. But that didn't matter. What mattered was she ran from him, and now he had some prey to catch. He sped up, rounded a corner and saw the clumsy girl crashing into yet another desk, trying to catch some decorative glass trinkets before they shattered to the floor. She looked up and shrieked when she saw him, which made his heart pound for some reason, but instincts controlled him and he pounced.

"GAH!" she gasped as Vegeta threw himself on top of her. She was flung to the ground with a splat and all the crap she was trying to put back went flying. She squirmed beneath Vegeta's warm body, trying to escape/feel him up a little bit. "What-are you doing-!" she squeaked, grabbing at his heaving chest as he pinned her to the floor.

"What kind of moron runs from someone who could kill her in a single blow?" Vegeta rumbled in her ear, and Bulma dug her fingers into his shoulders, trying not to enjoy him straddling her too much.

"Me I guess," she choked out, and Vegeta couldn't help but smile at the strained laughter still bubbling out of her. What a foolishly brave woman. Vegeta was almost impressed by her gall, as well as how delicious she smelled, but then remembered who she was, and, more importantly, who HE was, and he smushed the unpracticed smile down to a frown. That was better. He raised up enough to look her in the eye.

"Are you done now?" he asked.

"Not even close" she spat with a smirk. He growled at her, and raised an eyebrow as she slipped an arm out from under him and touched his neck. He was about to smack her away but she spoke first, in a weird, low voice.

"You're so-"

"What the hell's going on here?"

Bulma cut herself off and pushed on Vegeta's chest so he'd let her up, the moment gone as she quickly got to her feet.

"Yamucha! I didn't hear you come in!" she said, smiling at him, perfectly aware that she couldn't have sounded more guilty if she tried.

"I could hear you two just fine." Yamucha turned to give Vegeta an accusing look. "What's all the screaming down here? What do you think you're doing to my girlfriend?"

Vegeta slowly approached Yamucha and stood toe to toe with him, and although Vegeta was a good six inches shorter, Yamucha felt his bravery diminishing as the Prince glared up at him silently. Bulma nervously watched the exchange and sent up a quick prayer of thanks that Yamucha hadn't come in a minute later, as she had fully intended on sucking Vegeta's face off before he showed up. God what kind of girlfriend was she!? All she could think about was how amazing Vegeta felt pressed against her and about how maybe if Vegeta punched Yamucha into unconsciousness just now she could go back to what she was doing with the Saiyan. Unfortunately, Vegeta only gave Yamucha another few seconds of deathly consideration before stepping aside and leaving the room in eerie silence.

"What a creep!" Yamucha exclaimed once Vegeta was gone. "What was he doing to you? Did he try to hurt you?"

"I'm fine." Bulma brushed him off and walked back to her disheveled desk, Yamucha close behind her.

"He needs to step off, Bulma, and if you need me to teach him a lesson, I will!" Yamucha declared, and Bulma suppressed an eyeroll. It was a valiant, if not mildly laughable, offer but sheesh..When did he get so annoying? Why was she surrounded by annoying men all day long? And why was she painfully attracted to the wrong one?

"He's fine, Yamucha. Really. We have a good thing." she ignored his lingering as she began to look over the wrecked microwave that she'd honestly completely forgotten about. Yamucha went on as Bulma worked, but she wasn't listening.

Later that night when she was in Yamucha's arms, she buried her face in his strong neck and thought of the man in the room across the hall.

She was in trouble.


	5. Chapter 5: Weird

Vegeta woke up in the morning with an even deeper scowl than usual. He'd listened to disgusting sounds coming from Bulma's bedroom for what felt like half the night and his eventual sleep was fitful at best. All he could think about as he tossed and turned was their stupid, playful fight in the lab. He had enjoyed being in a tangle with her on the floor a little bit too much. She was just as soft and warm as he'd imagined, delicate, yet easily held her own against him. Probably because he became a weak, slobbery buffoon when she shifted beneath him and it took every ounce of energy not to let her see that. Her dumbass boyfriend showing up was the best thing to nip that situation, but now that he'd been that close to her, it seemed it was going to be pretty difficult to forget it. He wanted to be that close to her again, and it positively revolted him. Not her, for once, but him. His...FEELINGS. The mere word made him want to throw up. The attraction to her had been rolling around in his noggin for awhile now, just an afterthought to his training, I must be a super Saiyan, I must defeat Kakarott, and oh yeah, that Blue-Haired-Wench is kinda hot in a bossy, annoying kind of way. But yesterday seemed to open up a black hole of endless racing thoughts of the woman. Was this his brain now? Now that it wasn't totally preoccupied with thoughts of killing Frieza, is this what he had to think about? No wonder he hadn't become a super Saiyan! He had a LONG ways to go if he was actually letting thoughts of this obnoxious woman get in the way of what should have been his one and only focus.

Vegeta got up, whipped his training gear on like they'd insulted him and stomped down to the kitchen for breakfast. Bulma and Yamucha were down there already, digging into pancakes. Vegeta walked to the table and took the platter full of pancakes off the table and walked out the front door to the Gravity Chamber without a word.

"VEGETA!" Bulma hollered, jumping up from her chair and stumbling to the door, but Vegeta ignored her and slammed the Chamber shut behind him. "For the love of God!" she exclaimed, planting her hands on her hips angrily.

"I'll go get them back!" Yamucha declared, running for the door. Bulma slapped a hand to his chest, stopping him in his tracks.

"Forget it, I don't want you to lose a hand. I'll just make more." Bulma sighed. She went to the stove and turned it on as Yamucha went back to the table.

Bulma half-listened to Yamucha's conversation with Puar (who had popped up out of nowhere, as she did) and poured batter onto the skillet, letting her mind wander. Vegeta was such a weirdo sometimes! He usually had some smartass remark before he inevitably ate all their food, but today he couldn't even be bothered to grunt at them before doing so. Come to think of it, Bulma hadn't spoken to Vegeta at all since their encounter the day before. He'd skulked off without a word when Yamucha showed up and had ignored her, avoided eye contact, and acted generally put out since then. It couldn't be that, could it? He didn't act weird while he was chasing her, pinning her down and growling in her ear…

"_That's _weird," Bulma muttered to herself, rolling her eyes. Not acting weird was SUPER weird! Why _wasn't _he weird about it? Why did he even play the game with her? And why had she only just realized how out of the ordinary that was for the Saiyan? Why didn't he just shoot her down with a ki beam, or roundhouse her to the face like she probably deserved? Instead he indulged her and that was WEIRD. He was being WEIRD. "So weird." she shook her head, flipping the pancakes unconsciously.

"What's weird?" Yamucha asked, And Bulma silently cursed her inability to say anything quietly.

"Nothing, just how...quick I burned these?" she tried, turning back to the stove and crushing down one of the pancakes with her spatula in an attempt to blacken it.

"You're such a bad cook!" Yamucha laughed, and Bulma scowled.

"Vegeta likes it just fine." she mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing sweetie!" Bulma turned to him with a honey-dripping smile. She smashed a few more pancakes flat against the skillet, watching them smoke. "Here's your pancakes!"

* * *

><p>Yamucha left, and Bulma spent the remainder of the day trying to get Vegeta to talk to her. Look at her. Acknowledge her presence in some capacity. But he seemed hellbent on ignoring her, seeming to try even harder the more Bulma sought him out.<p>

"Vegeta" she said as he a finally emerged from the Gravity chamber that evening. Nothing.

"Vegeta" she said as he stuffed his face with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Nothing.

"Vegetaaaaaaa" she said as he headed up the stairs for bed. Nothing.

Sheesh he was good at this.

. "I don't know what your problem is buddy, but you can't ignore me forever!" She yelled up to him. Silence. She glowered and moped back to the living room.

"WATCH ME!"

Bulma grinned.

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><p>Sorry so short. Next chapter is longer! I hope you're all enjoying it so far. Actually, answer me this in your reviews: How are you feeling about the speed of their developing relationship? Does it feel natural? Let's face it, we know theyre gonna have sex. I mean, Trunks. I'm debating adding some things to lengthen the...progression, if you will, but if you feel the progression is adequate, then i will not wrack my brain. Let me know! I'd like to know what you'd like to see :)<p>

-Washu


	6. Chapter 6: Collapse

Chapter 6: Collapse

The days went on, but things were different. Bulma couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it seemed like Vegeta was being nicer to her. Well maybe not nicer. Calmer? Kind of...he'd definitely reined it in a little when it came to their fights, like now Bulma was certain he wasn't going to injure her when before she was only pretty sure. They still fought just as much, only there was a different edge to their exchanges. Dare she admit flirtatious? No...it couldn't be that...but it was, it was! She was certain of it! The way their eyes flitted to and away just as quickly from each other, and Vegeta even smirked sometimes at her ridiculous retorts. It all seemed to stem from their silly fight in the lab a week before, but she just wasn't sure why. She sure could speculate though. Like the other night! He'd actually voluntarily sat down and watched a movie with her. Well, _with_ might have been too generous. It was more like he lingered in the doorway for thirty or so minutes before silently coming in the room and sitting in the easy chair diagonal to her sofa. And maybe she'd purposely chosen the most violent film she could think of in attempt to lure him...

"_What's this?" he'd finally asked._

_"Rambo. That's Sylvester Stallone." she'd replied, pointing to the screen. Vegeta watched for another minute before speaking._

"_Is it real?"_

"_Is it.." Bulma didn't understand at first. "Oh! No, no it's a movie. They're actors. It's pretend. For entertainment." she clarified, and Vegeta looked at the screen and then back at her._

"_I know damn well you wouldn't call this entertainment." he looked at her pointedly and Bulma hesitated before shrugging. _

"_You're on to me." she replied. It pleased her that he actually knew her that well, whether intentionally or not. "I thought you'd like it."_

_Vegeta didn't answer, but didn't leave either. They watched for another twenty minutes silently._

"_This is a waste of time." Vegeta suddenly announced, getting to his feet. Bulma's heart sank, but to her surprise he pushed the coffee table out of the way (knocking her feet off it in the process), got down on the floor, and started doing pushups. He glanced up at Bulma's laughing eyes. "What? No reason to just sit like a lump like you." he gave no further explanation and trained his eyes on the screen. _

"_I can do pushups too." she mumbled with a smile. Vegeta flipped a 'whatever' gesture at her and carried on. Bulma snuggled back into the couch, watching the movie, Vegeta's back rising and falling in her peripheral vision. This was almost...normal. Could this have been their life, in another world where the threat of androids wasn't constantly looming? No, because the only reason Vegeta was even here was because of that lavender-haired boy's warning of the future. Bulma hated dwelling on what was to come. It was just hard to keep that in mind when she had a sexy alien walking around and doing push ups at her feet. Maybe if-_

_"The thing is over, woman, wake up." Rude fingers snapped in her face and Bulma shook herself out of her thoughts, seeing the credits rolling up the tv screen. Vegeta was looking up at her from a one-armed plank. "What's with you?"_

_"Just thinking." She answered, reaching for the remote._

_"Well, don't hurt yourself." Vegeta replied._

_"Bite me" Bulma rolled her eyes and started to flip channels. Vegeta pushed himself up to his knees and spun to face her, slamming an arm down on either side of her curled up legs. Bulma let out a little shriek and sunk back into the couch as Vegeta hoisted himself up till he was hovering right in her face._

_"You tell me that one more time and I'm going to do it." He threatened with a smirk, staring her right in the eyes. Before she could do anything, he immediately got back down and resumed his plank, leaving Bulma with what she hoped was not an audibly pounding heart._

_..._

What was he doing to her? Did he know? He was a Saiyan, Saiyans...KNEW things. Goku always had a keen sense of smell, made fun of her for sweating over projects or dumbly indicating she needed a shower...suppose Vegeta smelled, well, OTHER things..._ew, ew god brain what are you doing!_ While she was mulling this over, sprawled on the couch as usual, she heard the front door open and furrowed her brow at the clumsy-sounding steps that followed. She turned over and looked over the back of the couch to see Vegeta stumble to the doorway and lean heavily on the frame.

"Are you ok?" she immediately got to her feet and approached the Saiyan. Vegeta wasn't any more bloodied or bruised than usual, but upon further inspection she saw a large goose egg forming near his right temple. "Vegeta?"

"It...fuck, it hit me in the head, the bot…" he managed, eyes barely able to focus on the woman before him. Bulma held his shoulder as she ran her hand over his wound, causing him to wince. "Shit that hurts!" he hissed, jerking his head back. The rush of movement brought stars to his vision and before he knew what was happening he'd fallen face first onto the floor. Bulma gasped and dropped to her knees beside him, but Vegeta swatted her away. "See what you did, leave it alone!" he groaned, cradling his head in his hands.

"Let me help you!" Bulma snapped, prying Vegeta's fingers away from his head one by one. She finally gained access to the lump again and studied it briefly. "You're ok." she said. "You have a concussion, i'm sure, but you're fine. Just racked your brain a little bit." she tried to remain light-hearted, but inside she was freaking out. WAS he fine? the last time he'd had an accident in the chamber he'd almost died! He was on oxygen for days! Stupid stubborn Saiyan, never knowing when to quit...but this one wasn't his fault, and it was sort of amazing that he'd sought her out instead of just pushing on to the brink of death. "Come on." she pulled his arms until he was in the seated position and leaned him against the wall. "Sit tight. I'm going to get a compress and then i'll help you to bed."

"I don't need to go to bed." Vegeta mumbled, eyes closed.

"If this was any other place, i'd agree with you" Bulma said, getting up and going to the bathroom for a washcloth. "It's not a good idea to sleep with a concussion." she returned and knelt back down, pressing the dripping cloth to his head. Vegeta tensed and then sighed as the cold water began to numb his pounding temple. "But you're at Capsule Corp. I can monitor the shit out of you." she kept talking to distract him as she helped him to his feet and pulled him up the stairs to his room. She opened the door and took one step before stopping, her eyes darting back and forth in confusion.

"Vegeta, where's your bed?"

"I don't sleep in a bed. Too soft." he sagged against the doorframe, hand over his eyes. God the lights were bright.

"So you...you what then? Blew it up? You can't just destroy other people's property!" Bulma began to get a little screechy so Vegeta reached over and clamped his hand over her mouth, never opening his eyes.

"Relax, harpy, I just capsulized it." Vegeta said, and uncovered her mouth. Bulma rolled her eyes and turned him around.

"Well, I'm not leaving you on the floor. Guess you're passing out in my bed." she steered him across the hall and before he could protest she was dumping him on to her mattress.

"I don't want to lay in your filthy bed!" Vegeta snapped as loudly as he could manage, but once his head hit the pillow, a deep sigh escaped him. God this bed was soft. Too soft…

"That's what I thought." Bulma said as Vegeta immediately began to snore. She adjusted the compress against his wound and covered him up. She lingered a moment, and then pressed a kiss to his uninjured temple before scurrying from the room.

* * *

><p>The stiffness in his muscles alerted Vegeta that he'd been asleep way too long. He stretched thoroughly and cracked his joints before rolling onto his side and opening his eyes.<p>

"What the hell are you doing in here."

Bulma looked up from her large textbook and smiled.

"You're awake!" she set the book on the table next to the bed, turned the desk lamp toward him and then leaned over to check his welt. Vegeta flinched away from her and sat up, taking in his surroundings.

"What's going on? Why is it so dark in here? And why are you here?" he demanded.

"You got hurt. It's night. It's my room." Bulma answered each question bluntly and with enough swiping got Vegeta to let her see his head. "It looks sooo much better. Hang on, let me get…" she reached behind her and grabbed a small flashlight. She shined it in Vegeta's eyes.

"Gah!" he blinked hard and then glared at her. "What are you doing!"

"Making sure your brain works, idiot!" Bulma retorted, flashing the light back and forth. Pleased with how he followed it, she snapped it off. "You're fine. Saiyans have such an amazing healing capacity."

"I know." Vegeta said, rolling his eyes. "Thanks for the breaking news report."

"Shut up. Here, want a snack? Or some of this?" Bulma dug through the contents of her bedside table and handed him a little bottle of Listerine, figuring his mouth probably tasted like garbage, and Vegeta promptly chugged it. He swallowed the last of it and wiped his mouth, meeting Bulma's wide eyes.

"That was awful. What was wrong with that water? You should have your plumbing checked. Disgusting. Next, why is it night? How long have you kept me in here, unconscious?" Vegeta threw the covers back and got up, still wearing the black tank and training shorts from the day before.

"You've been asleep for…." she checked her phone and then covered her ears. "Seventeen and a half hours."

"WHAT!" He roared, and Bulma suppressed a laugh.

"You obviously needed rest, and I wasn't about to wake you before you'd healed." Bulma explained, watching him pace her floor with interest. "It's about four am."

"What a colossal waste of time!" he threw his hands in the air and kept ranting, even though deep inside he knew he never would've gotten anywhere with a lump the size of Capsule Corp on his head. "And most importantly, why am I in YOUR ridiculous, frilly room, and WHY are you in bed with me?"

"Oh for Petessake Vegeta it's a California King, I'm practically on Namek." Bulma rolled her eyes. "I had to monitor you, so I'm sitting here, hardly in bed with you, reading a book. And YOU don't have a bed!"

"Yeah! To prevent this from happening!" Vegeta swept his hand over her general region. Bulma got to her feet and instead of yelling, she approached him with a smirk.

"You know, Prince, if I really wanted to be in bed with you?" she put a gentle hand on his chest before shoving him. "I would be." she winked and a light blush sprinkled Vegeta's cheeks. She sidestepped around him but He grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him. She hit his chest with an 'oof!' and nervously looked up at him, knowing she'd probably gone too far.

"You're pressing your luck." Vegeta confirmed, and Bulma tried to look innocent, but Vegeta gripped her arm tighter, leaning down so close that his nose touched hers. That Listerine was not a poor choice. "And those big doe eyes aren't going to work on me." he growled.

"No?" Bulma asked softly, and Vegeta slowly shook his head, a smirk twitching at his lips.

"No."

"Hm." Bulma tsked. Maybe it was because it was four am. Maybe because she'd been awake the whole time he was knocked out and she wasn't thinking clearly...maybe it was his delicious musk and feel of his fingers on her skin... Or maybe it was just because she wanted to. But she never dropped her eyes from his as she traced his lips with her free hand. "Then how about this?" she closed the gap between them and kissed Vegeta full on the mouth.

No one had ever kissed him before, and the feeling was similar to drowning. He took a sharp breath as his stomach dropped to the floor like a boulder, his mind reeling but his body immediately reacting. He was unable to keep from responding to her and just as he let go of her arm and placed an unsure hand on her waist she pulled away.

Bulma could see she had taken the wind right out of the blowhard Saiyan and felt a sense of prideful accomplishment for only a second before really seeing the look in Vegeta's eyes.

"Why did you do that." Vegeta said in a low, mildly threatening voice. It took Bulma a moment to identify the underlying emotion that she assumed Vegeta had never felt: Vulnerability. She meant to simply walk away, but she found her mouth moving in response.

"Because" she spilled softly, sliding her uncooperative hands around Vegeta's neck. "I like you" she hesitated, considering tilting her head to kiss him again but to her surprise Vegeta ducked down and kissed her first, rough, inexperienced, fierce. Bulma's knees buckled and she pushed her weight against him, forcing Vegeta to wrap his arms around her back to support her. Bulma squeezed Vegeta so tightly she thought her heart would explode right out of her chest, their kissing and pawing quickly escalating. Vegeta pushed her back a few steps and slammed Bulma to the wall so hard the pictures rattled. He seized her mouth desperately, this new, hot, unbelievable lust boiling in the pit of his belly completely sabotaging his self control.

Bulma could barely stand as Vegeta ran his tongue over hers over and over again, his hands clenching her tightly, and the only thought her collapsing brain could muster was "oh, fuck."

He smelled so good, he felt so, so amazing, oh his body, good lord the way his chest heaved against hers, his fingers sliding along the curve of her breast, his leg between her thighs, Bulma could have died right there. This hadn't been her intention. She'd just wanted to shock him. Maybe shut him up for the rest of the night if she was lucky. But when Vegeta looked so searchingly at her and she could tell immediately he'd never done anything like this and just like that she wanted him, oh God she wanted him so bad. But Yamucha, fuck there was still Yamucha, and as she felt Vegeta's hand inch up her skirt she knew she was about two seconds away from the point of no return. She put her hands on his jaw and unlocked him from her mouth, willing herself to do the right thing. The lust in his eyes almost killed her.

"Vegeta, I, we, I can't, I mean, I-" she stammered. Vegeta stopped only long enough to pin her wrists on either side of her head.

"Shut up." he murmured breathlessly against her lips.

So she did.

In about four swift movements Bulma had hitched her legs around Vegeta's waist and eased his shorts down with her foot and Vegeta shoved her jean skirt up and her panties aside and just like that he was inside her, taking her, fucking her exactly the way she knew he would. He clenched her thighs and closed his eyes as Bulma kissed him wildly,digging her nails into his strong, scarred shoulders. She locked her ankles around his ass and roughly pulled his hair, her moans swallowed up by Vegeta's unsatisfiable mouth. Her head knocked against the wall and Vegeta jerked forward and as quickly as it started it was over, Vegeta groaning as Bulma urged him on, biting his lip hard as she let herself go with him, practically jolting with electricity. He dropped her back to her feet rather unceremoniously and leaned heavily against the wall, trying to catch his breath, tasting blood on his lips. Bulma sunk to her knees and sighed heavily, still feeling little tremors of pleasure zipping through her belly.

"Shit." she muttered.

Vegeta unconsciously pulled his shorts up with one hand and looked down at her. He'd been awake for exactly thirteen minutes.

"Yeah."

* * *

><p>Was that good for you? Sure was for me ;) Let me know how you're feeling about all this ( please review!).<p>

-Washu


	7. Chapter 7: After

Vegeta punched the air with brute force, his fists flying through the heavy air with little effort. The gravity chamber beeped warningly, trying to convince him he'd been at it too long, but he ignored it. He simply clenched his teeth and sped up, his arms now a blur of muscle.

What the hell had happened last night? One moment he was yelling, the next he was pinning that blue-haired woman-_human_-to the wall and doing things to her body he'd given up hope of ever experiencing. And the way she responded, the force with which she kissed him, climbed him, tore his hair...fuck. Vegeta slammed his fist down on the big red stop button and stood with his hand to his temples as the gravity slowly melted away to normal. Now-

* * *

><p>"-What?" Bulma whispered to herself. She was sitting on the floor of the shower, letting the spray massage her sore limbs. Who knew getting slammed into a wall repeatedly would leave bruises, regardless of situation. She pushed her wet hair from her brow and hunched over, resting her chin in her hand. Ok, so she fucked him. She couldn't stop thinking about it, and it was causing her to be in a nearly constant state of terrified arousal, which was a really, really unpleasant sensation. Terrified because, well, she'd cheated on her boyfriend with an evil villain, and aroused because God she wanted him again. And again, and again...She moaned in agitation and buried her face in her hands. Their explosion of sex didn't quench a damn thing, it just made her thirst for the Saiyan almost unbearable. But it-<p>

* * *

><p>'-<em>will never happen again.<em>' Vegeta stared himself down in the bathroom mirror, swearing the vow repeatedly in his mind. He'd taken an unpleasant shower; the woman had been in hers forever and was hogging all the hot water, and now he couldn't seem to stop staring at himself. Cursing himself. What a stupid, stupid thing to do. How could he let his desires, his animalistic...his DICK get the better of him? He'd just determined that he'd never ascend to Super Saiyan if he didn't get the woman off his mind and he went and FUCKED HER?

"Nice going" he mumbled to the pathetic man in the mirror. He zapped it to smoking oblivion and left the bathroom.

Bulma was yanked from her trance when she heard a muffled explosion from Vegeta's room. She rolled her eyes and got to her feet, shutting the water off. She wrapped a towel around her hair and slipped into a fuzzy pink robe before poking her head out of her bedroom to peer across the hall. Vegeta's door was shut, and no sounds emerged. She blew air out her nose and took the three steps to his door and knocked.

"Vegeta?" she asked timidly. The door opened a crack almost immediately. One onyx eye glared at her.

"What."

"I heard a boom. Everything ok?" Bulma pushed a strand of hair she'd missed behind her ear and looked down, suddenly very aware she was naked beneath her robe. Vegeta's eye followed her glance down, then snapped back up to her face.

"Peachy." he grumbled flatly after a moment, staring so hard at Bulma that she had to look away again.

"Ok. And, hey…"

"What."

"About last night,"

"No."

Bulma looked at his single eye and cocked her brow.

"What do you mean, no?"

Vegeta opened the door a few more inches so his whole tanned face was revealed.

"I mean No. No last night. Didn't happen." he stated, and Bulma's cheeks reddened angrily.

"Didn't happen? My body tells me otherwise, buddy!" she yelled, and Vegeta clapped his hand over her mouth and dragged her into his bedroom.

"ShhhhhUT UP!" he hissed, releasing her roughly. "Do you want Kami to know up on his fucking half-balloon?"

"No one's here, no one's gonna know, sheesh." Bulma said dismissively, fixing her robe that had fallen off her shoulder when Vegeta grabbed her. "And it did happen."

"No."

"Stop saying no!" Bulma shouted, putting one hand on her hip and a finger in Vegeta's face. "You can't just say no, and expect it to have magically not happened! You aren't that mighty, Prince!"

"Get your hand out of my face!" Vegeta smacked her arm away and without thinking Bulma hit him back, her turban falling off and her hair tumbling over her shoulders. Vegeta grabbed her wrist from mid-air and held it high above their heads.

"Don't." he growled, and after a few moments of pulling, let Bulma have it back. She rubbed her wrist half-heartedly, glaring up at him through her hair.

"You don't have to be such a dick." she grumbled. Vegeta said nothing and snapped her wrist up in his fist again. "HEY!" Bulma fought, but froze as Vegeta brought her wrist to his lips and gently pressed his sharp canine into the thin flesh. She clamped her mouth shut and stared unblinking at him until he released her, the malice in his movements gone. She looked at the imprint of his teeth in her skin and back to him. He corralled her to the door and held her by the scruff of her robe. He pressed his mouth against her neck, causing Bulma to take a sharp, shuddering breath.

"Don't forget it'd be that easy." he whispered, shoved her into the hallway, and slammed his door shut. Finally rid of her once again, Vegeta leaned heavily against his closed door. What the hell was THAT? He hated the sight of her, hated her haughty body language, like she'd done him some FAVOR or something last night, but above all he hated how smooth and white and supple the curve of her breast was as it had briefly peeked from her disheveled robe. He hated how that one momentary glance had short-circuited his brain. All at once he'd wanted to kill her and kiss her. Bite her. Vegeta punched his palm into his forehead repeatedly, cursing himself. Never again. Never. Again. Never… He continued the mantra in his head as he flung open his balcony doors and blasted off into the sunny sky.

Bulma felt the flare-up as Vegeta took off, and ran to the window at the end of the hall for confirmation. Seeing him disappear was a frickin blessing and she collapsed against the wall.

"I don't understand what just happened." she mumbled to herself. She looked down and realized she was still holding the wrist he'd nuzzled-nuzzled!?-in a death grip. She let go and inspected the damage. None. No proof the Saiyan had just tried to...what, claim her? Eat her? Who the hell knew. What she did know, however, was she needed to quickly find a reason or twelve why she couldn't see Yamucha for awhile. The phone rang and she screamed like an idiot before almost tripping over her own feet and scrambling downstairs to answer it.

"Hello!?" she yelled into the mouthpiece.

"Hey Babe! Why are you screaming?"

"I don't know!" Bulma smacked the phone against her head. "Sorry, sorry, Hey Yamucha" she took it down a notch but could feel her whole body shaking with anxiety.

"Hey, I just wanted to let you know That Tien and I are taking off for an extended training Vaca. Don't be mad, but we already left, please don't be mad!"

Bulma fell on the floor with relief. Did Kami actually answer prayers?

"That's fucking great!" she exclaimed, "I mean, good, i'm not mad, that's cool. Totally cool. Train away!" she cackled into the phone.

"Ok, someone needs their coffee!" Yamucha laughed and Bulma covered her face with her hand, legs splayed unattractively on the floor. She let the phone dangle a moment before getting her shit together and clumsily pulled it back to her ear.

"Yep, coffee, for sure need some coffee. Well have fun, see you when you get back!"

"Sure will, I'll call y-"

Bulma struggled to her feet and slammed the phone into the cradle before Yamucha had even finished and dragged herself into the kitchen. Coffee didn't sound half bad.

* * *

><p>Thank you :) Reviews are nice! Stay tuned...<p>

-Washu II


	8. Chapter 8: Shut Up

Three days passed, and Bulma did nothing but work. Vegeta still hadn't returned, and it was amazing how much more she got done when broken bots weren't being thrown on her desk every five minutes. By day two she was concerned Vegeta might not come back, but she did a quick scan of his bedroom and saw his Saiyan armor was still in the closet, and like hell would he ever leave that behind. So she worked. And worked, and worked. In two eighteen hour days she'd almost completely caught up on all her projects. Two hours into day three she placed an invoice in her overflowing out box and smiled happily.

"Done!" she said to herself, running her hands over the empty chestnut desk. She leaned back in her chair and grabbed a bag of chips from her drawer. Now what...Honestly with Vegeta gone she was kind of bored. It was pretty excellent not to have to deal with him, especially after...THE DEED…, but she actually missed having something to do, someone to talk to, someone to make her heart pound...sheesh. She swiveled in her chair and pouted at the one final thing she'd been putting off. She'd been specifically avoiding the box of malfunctioning bots in the corner of her glorified cubicle, almost like by ignoring them she was somehow sticking it to him. But she'd been so successful getting their sexcapades off her mind with work that the idea of leaving the lab for lack of anything to do was rather terrifying. Her mind might...SAY STUFF if she did.

She stared at the box, having a little mental battle with herself. She sighed heavily and shoved the chips back in her drawer. She scooped the box up and huffed out to the Gravity Chamber, blinking hard as the sun hit her for the first time in several days. She yanked the door open and dumped the box on the metal floor.

The thing with these bots was actually, painful as it was to admit, more her fault than Vegeta's. They didn't respond properly to the manual buttons at the command center in the chamber, which meant they could go a little haywire. Possibly even hitting certain Saiyans in the face and causing them concussions. But certain Saiyans would never know about that if Bulma could help it. It was a simple enough fix, just a stupid configuration she'd forgotten to activate on this batch of twelve, probably because Vegeta was bothering her at the time so really it was his own fault he'd gotten blasted...but anyway. She grabbed the first bot and sat on the control panel to get to work.

Shit it was hot in there! Of course it was, it was a tiny enclosed ball made entirely of metal. Why didn't Vegeta ever complain about the heat? "Probably likes sweating his balls off" Bulma rolled her eyes and stripped off her lab coat, glad she'd worn a tank top today. She went to the door and pushed it open for some fresh air. Better. She wasn't even halfway through and by the looks of the several employees milling about in the unseasonably warm sun, it was already lunch time. She tied her hair back in a half-ass top knot and resumed her endless button pressing.

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><p>The sun was low in the west hills when gold-tipped boots touched down on the expansive Capsule Corp lawn. Vegeta stood quietly for a moment, taking in his surroundings. His black spandex were filthy and torn and his gloves were so bloodied he just disregarded them on the grass. He hadn't eaten in three days and really wanted some food, but he'd noticed immediately that the door to the gravity chamber was open and that Bulma's ki was inside. He didn't hear any of Bulma's tell-tale noises, such as swearing or that horrible off-key train wreck she called singing . As far as Vegeta knew he hadn't broken anything recently, so she was probably just fucking with it, maybe dismantling it in his absence. He bristled at this thought and darted to the chamber, but stopped himself just out of sight from the open door. He deftly approached the side of the chamber and peered inside the door.<p>

Bulma was sitting crosslegged on top of the command center, completely focused on the bot in front of her. She was tediously poking at it with a screwdriver, and Vegeta knew she was pressing buttons inside the bot's control panel. There was a pile of freshly revamped bots on the floor in front of her, blinking with life. He continued to watch her, unnoticed. She had that serious, slightly demented look on her face that she only got when she was deep in a project. Vegeta wondered for the upteenth time how she could be so frivolous, so...SILLY (God the human language had stupid words) and yet be, yes, he had to admit it, the smartest people he'd ever met. Leaps and bounds more brilliant than anyone he'd ever encountered in the galaxy. It wasn't just smarts though, everything about the way she worked and processed things was so different than anyone else he'd known. It was as if the wheels were always turning, even when she was indignant to his demands. She hated fixing things for him on principle, but couldn't deny a challenge. As much as she bitched, this wasn't the first time she'd been working on things he hadn't yet destroyed. Just to improve it, just to challenge _him_ in return. His eyes widened as he abruptly realized how alike they actually were. Mild disgust and confusion rose in his belly and he tried to shake away those disturbing thoughts. Why did she do all this for him and asked for nothing in return?

He focused his eyes back to the woman in the chamber. There was a sheen of sweat on her forehead and sprinkled over her chest, and Vegeta scoffed at her weakness; she sweats just SITTING there! But while the front of his brain mocked her, the back of it couldn't stop staring at one little drop of perspiration as it trickled between her breasts. One strap of her shirt had fallen carelessly off her shoulder and Vegeta had to fight the urge to snap it. Her hair was a damp tangled pile and he wanted nothing more than to rip it from it's restraint and feel it draped on his chest. FUCK BRAIN, WHAT WAS HAPPENING!? He smacked his face and then again when Bulma snapped her head up.

"Vegeta!" she exclaimed. "You scared the shit out of me, as usual." she uncrossed her legs and jumped down, then immediately began hopping around on one leg, yelling something about pins and needles, and Vegeta just stared at her, wondering when exactly he'd lost his mind because God help him, he wanted to eat her alive. No. No. No. No.

"What are you doing?" Vegeta asked with annoyance. Bulma eventually stopped her weird little dance and rubbed her leg absently.

"FIxing an error." she tossed her screwdriver to the box beside her, missing completely. "When did you get back?"

"Now." Vegeta replied, crossing his arms and coming inside. "I didn't break anything, so whatever it was must've been your fault." he toed one of the bots and looked at her. Bulma wiped sweat from her brow and mirrored his stance.

"Yes, it's always my fault, great Prince Vegeta could never, EVER, break ANYTHING without telling me, NEVER! ABSURD!" she waved her hands in the air sarcastically, and Vegeta blinked at her. "Ok yeah it was me. But they're fine now. I was out of things to do. "

"Miss me?" Vegeta smirked, and Bulma rolled her eyes, but she was secretly pleased that their dynamic seemed to be getting back to normal after their post-coital weirdness.

"Hardly. You wouldn't believe how much work I got done without you here breaking everything." she quipped with a smile. Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her as she pushed stray turquoise strands from her face.

She was so beautiful.

"Raaghh!" Vegeta growled loudly and pressed his hands to his eyes in what looked to Bulma like pain.  
>"Jesus are you ok?" she approached him quickly but Vegeta held his hand out, halting her movements a foot away from him. "What's wrong with you weirdo?" she put her hands on her hips but couldn't hide her concern.<p>

"Nothing! I'm fine!" he yelled, and crossed his arms tightly over his chest again. Bulma cocked her eyebrow and slowly turned back to the control panel, eyeing him suspiciously as she put her tools away.

"You've really got a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on here." she mumbled.

"A what?"

"Never mind." she continued to glance his way every few seconds to make sure he wasn't going to kill her or something until she was all packed up. "Can you help me?" she pointed to the box. Vegeta snickered.

"Not bloody likely."

"Jerkface." she stuck her pink tongue out at him and gathered the tearing box up, struggling to her feet. "Shii-" she clumsily turned and caught the side of the box on Vegeta's bulky shoulder, sending her sprawling to the ground. She covered her head, prepared for the box to land on top of her but nothing happened. She peeked out and saw Vegeta holding the box by one dog-eared flap about six inches from her body. He tossed it aside and looked away from her surprised blue eyes. "Thank you." she blurted, unable to look away from him even though he was purposely not looking at her. "I don't think i've ever said that to you and actually meant, well, thank you. But...you know, thanks."

"Shut up!" he exclaimed, however significantly less harshly than usual. Bulma sighed and he finally slid his eyes down to her. Splayed legs, falling ponytail, shifted tank top stained with grease. She felt his eyes on her and looked up at him from beneath long lashes, and suddenly everything Vegeta told himself went to shit. He grabbed her forearm and pulled her up in an instant.

"Vege-" her words were stifled as he grabbed her face in both hands and kissed her with fervent force. Bulma's shocked eyes quickly fluttered closed as she let the Saiyan kiss her, his rough advances softening as she responded gently to his mouth, setting a compromise between them. This kiss was so much more than their first. What it lacked in fiery, painful assaults it more than made up for in passion. Bulma felt like Vegeta's entire aura of power was being poured into her, and she struggled not to let her knees buckle. What a sap. She put her hands over Vegeta's, which were still cupping her face, sliding her fingers between his. Something about this intimacy brought Vegeta out of the haze and he quickly broke away from her lips. Bulma looked at him, afraid to move. He seemed bewildered, like he'd no idea what had just happened or why.

"Uh..." she spoke hesitantly.

"Shut up" Vegeta spat, and before she could say anything else he spun on his heel and stormed out of the chamber, leaving Bulma staring at the empty door with her fingers to her still-tingling lips.

"Oh….kay…." she whispered under her breath, utterly baffled, and shakily turned to keep cleaning up. She knelt to pick up the box and was suddenly thrown to the ground by a blur of flaming hair and muscle. She landed hard on her back and Vegeta straddled her hips, pinned her wrists on either side of her head and kissed her so hard she thought her teeth would break. So much for gentle. She shrieked against his mouth as he bit her bottom lip, and was quickly muffled by one of his hands as he dipped down and bit her neck too. He worked his way down her neck to her collarbone, teeth edging along the protruding clavicle. His hand eventually fell away from her mouth as he couldn't resist touching her. Bulma gripped his hair and arched against him, breath quickening in her arousal. Even though he was essentially attacking her in some blind raging lust, even though she was pretty sure he'd given her a concussion by smacking her head on the metal floor, she was inexplicably unafraid of this monstrous Saiyan over her, and instead was monumentally turned on.

She let him rip the strap of her shirt that he'd been staring at earlier and gasped as he roughly ran his tongue over her breast, fingers gripping at her ribs rather painfully. She shoved her hands into the waistband of his shorts, untucking his shirt and pushing it up high on his chest. he pushed off her and sat up long enough to rip it over his head before immediately diving back down to continue his assault with his mouth. She squirmed against him, barely able to gasp for air as she felt his tongue on her stomach, her sides, her hipbones, his calloused hands seeming to touch her absolutely everywhere all at once. It was sensory overload and she was almost certain that much more of this bare-chested, unruly fucking hot Saiyan on top of her would make her entire body explode. She tore his hair and pulled him up to her face.

"Fuck me" she hissed, taking the moment to shimmy out of her shorts. Vegeta pushed his own down only enough to free himself and, slamming Bulma flat on the floor, did as she asked.

It was only minutes before Bulma saw stars, pushed over the edge by Vegeta's carnal groans in her ear as he came. He released her from his death grip and rolled off her, lying beside her as he caught his breath. Bulma wiped her face and shoved her hands through her tangled mess of hair that had fallen from its knotted nest at some point. Or maybe Vegeta had yanked it out, it was hard to say. She sat up on her elbows with a grunt and looked at the man beside her. Vegeta's eyes were still closed, and while he'd managed to pull his shorts back up, he otherwise hadn't moved. One arm was sprawled on the floor, the other draped over his rapid chest carelessly. His eyes were closed, and Bulma studied him carefully, lowering down till her face was just inches from his.

"Vegeta." she whispered. Vegeta frowned, not opening his eyes.

"What."

"You smell."

Vegeta finally opened his eyes and snarled at her cheeky face.

"Fuck you" he sat up and ran a hand over his eyes before getting up. "I've been doing nothing but training for days, all to save your beloved mudball." he retrieved his shirt and pulled it over his head, feeling Bulma's eyes boring holes into his body as he smoothed it over his chiseled abdomen. He looked at her with a devilish smirk. "It didn't seem to bother you a few minutes ago." he noted, and pelted her blushing face with her forgotten shorts. "Close the door on your way out" he commanded, and Bulma flipped off his back as he stalked down the ramp to the grass. "AND MAKE ME SOME FOOD!"

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><p>Hope you enjoyed it. How's everyone feeling about it? Please let me know what you think in the reviews :)<p>

-Washu II


	9. Chapter 9: Tso-Tasty

Bulma muttered and cursed to herself as she clicked away at her computer, ordering Chinese take-out online when she knew damn well Vegeta preferred home cooking. It was as rebellious as she felt like being to his demands...after all, he HAD been away for three days, surely ignoring basic bodily needs such as food. And after the day she'd had, she was hungry too. So who was she really punishing by not coming up with food? Herself. That's right. She reasoned this while completely shutting down the side of her brain that suggested maybe she did what he asked-demanded-because she wanted to. Because it was him. And she'd do anything he wanted. Nope. Not that.

Bulma shook her annoying thoughts away and listened to the shower running on the second floor while she waited for the food to arrive. Hopefully Vegeta would take awhile, as she'd only noticed after they'd had sex that he was covered in literally like an inch of grime. She wrinkled her nose, realizing that scum was now all over HER, and quickly programmed a bot to receive the food delivery while she ran upstairs to shower.

When she returned, the food was steaming on the counter, unpacked and arranged attractively on plates. Seriously how did people live without bots? She inhaled deeply and fought the urge to eat the entire plate of spring rolls herself as she set the table.

"VEGETA!" She hollered, and started to dish up. She let a minute go by before going to the stairs. "VEGETA! FOOD!" she bellowed, and still no response, not even a considerate "SHUT UP!". He must not have heard her. She went upstairs and found his door partially ajar. She knocked and pushed it open. "Hey your majesty, dinner is ready!" she called to the bathroom door, and turned to leave.

"I heard you the first three times, loudmouth."

Chastised, Bulma stuck her hand on her hip and turned to see Vegeta coming out of the bathroom, towel over his shoulder. Over his naked shoulder, which led down to his naked body. Vegeta eyed her and rubbed the towel behind his neck and ears.

"Do you mind?" he said with mild amusement, watching as Bulma's wide eyes traveled south. She uttered a small 'oh!' and quickly turned, blush creeping up her neck to her cheeks. "What? It's nothing you haven't seen before. There, if you're so embarrassed." Bulma glanced back and saw he was now standing in front of her, wrapping the towel around his waist. She was practically knocked over by how unbelievably hot his tanned, scarred, ...endowed..body was but she refused to let him have the upper hand.

"Actually, since we've never even managed to take our clothes off, I hadn't seen it." she pointed out. She put a hand on his still-damp chest and reached down with the other, pressing her palm against the towel. Vegeta gave the smallest gasp of pleasure as she moved her hand slowly up and then down again. "But i've felt it." she whispered with a dark grin, and quickly stepped away from him. "Kung Pao?" she offered innocently, and flounced out of the room. Vegeta growled.

Bulma was already stuffing her face when Vegeta came down, looking strangely normal in black sweat pants and a white t-shirt. He sat down without looking at her and heaped a gargantuan pile of noodles onto his plate. They ate in silence, and Bulma couldn't help but think how nice-and weird-it was to just eat. She was sure Vegeta was just too starving to argue with her, but whatever.

"Good?" she asked once he slowed down.

"I prefer your wretched mother's cooking." he said with his mouth full, confirming that Bulma couldn't get anything passed him. She chewed her fourth spring roll.

"Well my wretched mother is gone. So I hope General Tso-Tasty is good enough."

Vegeta grunted in response and emptied a sixth bowl, finally pausing long enough to look up at her. He assessed the table.

"You ate a lot for a lousy human." he commented, and Bulma uttered a small burp.

"I was starving. Do all Saiyans eat like this?"

Vegeta slammed his chopsticks down.  
>"I DO NOT eat like that uncivilized slob you call your friend" He spat, referring to Goku. "I use utensils, and...am not a slob!" he shouted, unable to really define any other difference.<p>

"Ok, ok sorry you're right, Goku does eat...grossly." she agreed. "You only eat kind of grossly. I meant more do you all eat this MUCH."

Vegeta wiped his mouth hastily with a napkin and poured himself more tea.

"I eat no more than your race. I just take all my meals at one sitting. You humans waste hours eating multiple times each day. Saiyans spend one hour only a few times a week eating a total of what has taken you three days to ingest." he explained patiently.

"Huh." Bulma said. "So you have more time to train and fight without interruption." Vegeta nodded curtly. "That's smart! That actually makes a lot of sense. But Goku was raised here and he eats multiple meals that are the size of what you just ate."

"That's because he's a disgusting lardass." Vegeta said nonchalantly, and Bulma laughed. She kept giggling as she played with her fortune cookie and glanced up at Vegeta, catching the faintest of smiles tugging at the corner of his mouth. Not wanting to press her luck for once, she let it go without acknowledgement and their conversation died out. This was the most he'd ever talked to her without screaming since he moved in to CC, and she would take what she could get. They sat quietly, Vegeta drinking his tea and Bulma nibbling her cookie as she inspected her nails.

"I'm done. Make yourself useful." Vegeta pointed to his dirty dishes.

"Did you want me to do a trick or something?" Bulma deadpanned, and Vegeta just stared at her with that frozen death stare. She sighed heavily. "Yes Master. Yes, my leige. Anything you want" she replied sarcastically, sweeping her arms out, but Vegeta didn't respond to her egging on. She looked back down at him and saw he was leaning heavily on his elbow, eyes half-lidded and glazed. Apparently he hadn't slept in three days, either. She softened and reached out to run her fingers over his hair.

"Don't touch me" he grumbled before her hand had even reached him and she smacked him upside the head instead. Vegeta grabbed her wrist and stood up "I SAID-" Bulma silenced him by placing her lips on his jaw. Vegeta froze and when she gently broke away, he looked at her warningly. "-Don't touch me." he finished in a low voice.

"Your floor seems like it'd really uncomfortable. Come sleep in my bed. Remember how comfy it is?" she offered coyly.

"I do not need 'comfy.'" he spat out the word like it tasted bad. "I need rest."

"Not gonna get good rest on that floor!" she shrugged, taking the dirty dishes to the sink. "But it's warm and nice with me." she winked, and Vegeta headed for the stairs.

"You think you're making it sound more appealing but you're not." he huffed, but Bulma just smiled.

"Fine, I'll be right across the hall. In my nice big, soft bed…" she trailed off teasingly and she heard Vegeta's door slam in response. She snorted with amusement before yawning loudly. She was actually dead tired as well, so she programmed a bot to clean up the mess and headed up to bed herself. She brushed her teeth and changed into a modestly short nightie. She turned out the light and snuggled into bed. She'd just drifted off when she heard her door open and softly click shut. Quiet footsteps creaked toward the bed and she smiled to herself when she felt weight lay down beside her.

"I thought you might change your mind." she said sleepily, back still turned.

"Change my mind about what?"

Bulma froze.

Yamucha.

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><p>I'm sorry it's so short...but obviously had to stop there :) Reviews are great!<p> 


	10. Chapter 10: Regardless

Yamucha was back. Bulma had felt all the blood in her body turn the ice when she heard his voice behind her. She feigned unconsciousness, praying with all her might that Yamucha would just think she was talking in her sleep. He only touched her shoulder once before leaving her alone, as years of beatings had enforced the rule of never waking her up. She felt him lay down beside her and only when she heard his breathing become slow and even did she relax. She slept fitfully, and at the crack of dawn she snuck out of the room. Vegeta's door was closed and no sounds emerged. She tiptoed downstairs and spent the sunrise biting her nails and gulping coffee. By mid-morning she had a stomach-ache from all the caffeine and nerves, and busied herself with breakfast.

She wasn't expecting Yamucha to be back so soon. She also wasn't expecting to fall into bed with an evil Saiyan Prince. Was this some crappy $5 romance novel? Lord. She never meant for this to happen, okay? Okay... so she had almost completely forgotten about him in the 72 hours he was gone, was it so terrible? Was she the worst person ever because she got distracted?

_Are you kidding? Are you seriously asking yourself these questions? You're a whore!_ Bulma's inner bitch-voice taunted, and she furrowed her brow as she agitatedly scrambled a skillet of eggs. Her innocence-voice tried to retort. _No! You aren't a whore! Things with Yamucha have been dull ever since Frieza. Ever since he came back from the dead. These things have no correlation to the fact that it's also ever since Vegeta came to stay here. None. _

_That's a real nice thought, lady. But I assure you, you're a whore. _

"Oh my god, shut up." she whispered to herself, already feeling a headache coming on in addition to her knotted stomach. She heard footfalls from upstairs and put herself back together, straightening up and reducing her banging on the skillet with the spatula. She glanced toward the stairs in the living room and saw it was Vegeta coming down. She turned the burner down and dumped the eggs onto a plate, hoping she could quickly serve him and send him on his merry way. But the way he was glaring at her as he entered ensured her she'd have no such luck. He walked up to the stove and stood uncomfortably close to her. Bulma tried to avoid eye contact as she practically threw the plate into his arms.

"Breakfast!" she said, overly-cheerful and wide eyed, hoping that would distract him. He eyed her, and even though he didn't say anything, Bulma knew and gave a short sigh. "He came back last night."

"Yes. I heard him carrying on with that floating rodent in your room a few minutes ago." Vegeta replied, giving her another look before starting to eat the eggs with his fingers.

"God she never leaves." Bulma muttered, turning back to the counter to continue cooking. Vegeta said nothing, but didn't move. "I didn't...you know...say anything. I pretended to be asleep when he came in." Bulma said softly.

"Whatever." Vegeta grunted and dropped the now-empty plate on the counter with a sharp clang. He headed toward the door without a word.

"Wait, don't you need more to eat?" Bulma called hastily, code for _Don't you want to stay in here so I don't have to talk to Yamucha alone?_

"I didn't need _that_, remember?" Vegeta retorted, referring to their conversation the night before. He waved her away and slammed the door behind him. She watched helplessly as he walked out to the Gravity Chamber and Yamucha came pounding down the stairs.

"Hey!" Bulma called, hoping she didn't sound too fake. "I made breakfast but Vegeta ate it." she reached for more eggs as Yamucha fell beside her.

"As usual. I don't know why you cook for him anyway." Yamucha glared toward the door. "I'm just gonna drink a protein shake, don't worry about making more." Yamucha clapped Bulma roughly on the back as if she were Tien and not his girlfriend, and stuck his head in the fridge. Bulma rubbed her shoulder with a small grimace and handed Yamucha the eggs to put away. She picked a few remaining clumps of egg out the skillet for herself.

"Hello, earth to Bulma!" Yamucha laughed and Bulma snapped her eyes to him.

"What? Huh?" she had been staring daggers out the window at the humming gravity chamber.

"I was saying Tien and I really got some great training in. We should beat those androids no problem!" Yamucha repeated, and guzzled his drink before throwing an obscene gesture in the direction of the Chamber. "Shouldn't need any help from that jerk."

"Don't get cocky." Bulma retorted. Yamucha looked strangely at her. "I get enough of that from him." she quickly covered.

"I don't know why you don't just kick him out." Yamucha said to her for probably the one hundredth time since he'd been brought back from the dead.

"Because we need his help and he has nowhere else to go." Bulma sighed, answering the same way she always did as she turned to do the dishes.

"He's resourceful! He's been on his own his whole life, he'll make a house in a tree or something, damn monkey." Yamucha grumbled. "Who cares."

"I care!" Bulma snapped, slamming the dirty skillet into the sink. "Why don't you realize Vegeta and Goku are our best shot, not you and Tien? Sorry, but it's true. Don't you remember what that kid said? We're all dead. We need him, so he stays. Don't like it? Get out. " she waved her hand at him.

"Sheesh, what the hell is your problem today?" Yamucha asked irritably, crossing his arms.

"YOU ARE!" Bulma yelled, whirling around. "You're driving me crazy Yamucha just go train or something!" she turned back to the sink so he wouldn't see how angry she actually was.

"For what! I'm weak!" Yamucha mocked her as he headed for the door. "Just call me when you chill out." another phrase used a billion times. "Bye."

"Bye." Bulma spat. She shut off the faucet and stomped to the living room. She meant to sit but instead found herself pacing in front of the picture window. She couldn't quite place why she was almost boiling over with anger. Was it really because of the things he'd said about Vegeta? Or was it just his supreme cockiness about his own abilities? Both. it was both. But...why? He hadn't said anything about Vegeta that she hadn't said before, and Yamucha's bragging was nothing compared to the Saiyan's. So why did it make her so furious when Yamucha, her boyfriend, made fun of Vegeta, her...houseguest.

_I think I know the answer to that_, Bitch-voice taunted. Bulma gritted her teeth and with a little frustrated scream ran down to the lab in a desperate attempt to escape her meddling brain.

Somehow, working on projects for Vegeta actually got her mind OFF Vegeta, and Bulma spent the rest of the afternoon buried in metal and tools. She worked tirelessly until she noticed how quiet her surroundings had become, and looked up to see that she was the only person left in the lab. This was a frequent occurrence that she usually paid no mind to, and she leaned back for a second and almost checked her phone, but decided against it. Even if Yamucha had called, she wasn't ready to talk to him. After this morning she had no idea what she'd just vomit out in the middle of a conversation. Her mind started to take off in the _good job dumb slut, what now_ direction but she shut that shitstorm down. _Not fucking dealing with you, brain. _

She rejected all other thoughts except for thoughts about how to override the self-destruct on this damn contraption. Just as she was settling back into her groove she heard the heavy door swing open. She looked up and saw Vegeta heading toward her, towel slung over his bare shoulder. He looked fresh from the shower, however blood was already seeping through the new white bandages over one of his hands.

_Who's Yamucha?_

"What's up?" she asked nonchalantly, trying not to ogle him too obviously.

"Nice glasses." he said as he leaned against her desk. Bulma quickly ripped the huge,, very attractive, protective goggles off her face and tried to rub away the suction marks she knew would be left around her eyes.

"Break something else?" she asked, wiping the grime from her hands onto her dirty lab coat.

"My knuckles. Bandage them." Vegeta replied, sticking his unwrapped fist in her face.

"Really?" Bulma asked, taken aback. She inspected his hugely swollen hand.. "Gross." she whispered. "Why do I have to do it? What's wrong with your other hand?"

"I broke that too, if you must know, so just do it already and stop wasting my time." Vegeta grunted. Bulma glanced at his other mangled hand.

"I'll get the first aid kit" she said with a sigh. Vegeta leaned against her desk as she pulled a large white box off the top of a filing cabinet. " I'm not exactly a doctor. I'll do what I can, but I'll call Korin and have him send us out some Senzu beans." she said upon her return, and rummaged through the metal kit for what she needed. She assumed Vegeta wouldn't sit, so she sat in her swivel chair and gently pulled Vegeta's hand to her. She wrapped it swiftly, and secured it with two silver clips. "Can you move your fingers?" she looked up at him, his hand still between hers. Vegeta's fingers moved slightly, but they were stiff and shaky. "It doesn't look too bad-"

"Thank you for your professional medical opinion" Vegeta cut her off. Bulma made a face at him.

"I SAID I was no doctor. And I was going to say it doesn't look too bad for a Saiyan." She let his hand go and Vegeta smirked.

"Nothing is too bad for a Saiyan." he boasted, but Bulma could see the grimace as he leaned on his hands back against the desk.

"So what is that now, two broken hands, a total of seven broken ribs, and around twenty-nine concussions?" she asked rhetorically.

"But who's counting?" Vegeta replied letting his gaze slip down her figure, and Bulma shifted uncomfortably beneath the weight of his eyes on her.

"Did you need something else?" she started to get up, but Vegeta took a step and stood right in front of her, blocking her from rising from her seat. She raised her eyes to him, acutely aware of his crotch about six inches from her face. "Um. Hi."

"Is that pathetic, loathsome piss ant still here, or did he wander off to fuck around in some lame attempt at training?" Vegeta asked, and Bulma narrowed her eyes at him.

"Ya know, asking 'where's Yamucha' would save us a lot of time instead of your long-ass rambling descriptions." she said to him, and found it was very hard to keep her hands on the armrests instead of grabbing onto Vegeta's hips and yanking him to her.

"I don't care where he is." Vegeta snapped. He bent down, his broken hands gripping her forearms with surprising strength. He leaned forward and stopped just short of her parted lips. "I care where he isn't."

Bulma's stomach flipped and she answered him by jerking her head forward, seizing his mouth in a fiery kiss. Vegeta released her arms, grabbed her waist and crouched down, forcing her out of her chair and onto the floor with him. She shrugged out of her lab coat, leaving her in a lopsided, low cut pink t-shirt. She pushed his shoulders with both hands, unable to physically force him to the ground but enough for him to get the picture and he allowed her to press him to the floor. She relished being on top of him, and let her hair fall along her neck and over his chest as they kissed and felt each other up desperately. She moved so she was straddling his thighs, and reached down between them to slide her hand into his shorts. Vegeta raised his hips to her as he felt her hand on him, and he groaned against her hot mouth. Bulma broke from him and lightly licked his bottom lip. He licked her back, and Bulma shuddered as she continued stroking his burning flesh and Vegeta grabbed her ass and pulled her closer to his pelvis and she was pretty sure she'd have to throw her underwear away.

This alien made her brain turn to fucking mashed potatoes.

"Your knuckles are broken" she whispered huskily. "I don't want you to strain yourself." She lowered herself down his body, peeling his shorts down with her and ducked south and Vegeta about died.

She didn't want to brag, but Bulma knew her way around most kinds of equipment, and it was only minutes before Vegeta was squeezing his eyes closed, bucking his hips and letting out a low, guttural moan through gritted teeth. Bulma delicately wiped her mouth and came up to lay beside him, leaning on her elbow, watching as the flush slowly evaporated from his face. He eyed her with an amusing touch of suspicion.

"What. The fuck. Was that." he asked between breaths. Bulma giggled.

"Must be a human thing, hm?"

Vegeta didn't answer, and his breath returned to normal. Bulma studied his face.

"Vegeta?"

"What."

"Were you a virgin?"

Vegeta sat up.

"What the hell is a virgin."

_You, I'm pretty sure_ Bulma thought to herself, but figured saying that would just embarrass him. How to say…

"Have you done what we've done with other girls? You know, when we-"

"I GET IT, woman, I'm not familiar with human slang, not mentally challenged." Vegeta snapped at her, and after a moment, looked away. "No." he gave reluctantly.

"Really?" Bulma said before she could stop herself, and Vegeta's dark eyes shot bullets at her. "No, No I mean it's just you're so…" she waved her hand along his lean, muscular figure. Vegeta scowled.

"Well thank you very much, but between purging planets and being held prisoner, I didn't have a lot of free time to trifle around with females." he grumped sarcastically.

"Oh." Bulma said softly, dropping her eyes. "Sorry."

Vegeta waved her apology away with a 'psh', but to her surprise didn't stomp out of the room. "Um…" she tucked her tangled turquoise hair behind her ear and raised her bright eyes to him. "Wanna go again?"

Vegeta made a weird, scoffing grunt noise and with an amused cocked eyebrow, Bulma realized that was the closest to a laugh she'd ever heard from him. She took the bone and kept digging. "C'mon." she teased, running her smooth palm up his bare chest. "There's stuff you can do to me without hands too." she grinned, and Vegeta blushed deep red, but immediately recovered by swiftly swinging his leg over her so now he was the one doing the straddling. "Wanna know what?" she asked as he started leaving rough, wet kisses down her neck toward her chest.

"I'll figure it out." he replied, muffled by her breasts. Bulma gave a wild little laugh and arched her back to Vegeta's ever-lowering body, hands lost in his rough, black hair.

"Fuck yeah you will."

And so she was having an affair.

* * *

><p>Sorry this one took a little longer. Thanks for reading, please review and tell me what you think! I appreciate all feedback, questions, comments, songs, etc. :)<p>

-Washu II


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